Pot-linked stocks plunge after Sessions decree on marijuana

Originally published January 4, 2018 at 2:08 pm
Updated January 4, 2018 at 2:35 pm

Marijuana-linked stocks of companies in the Seattle area and elsewhere plunged Thursday as U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions withdrew the Obama-era policy restricting federal law enforcement officials from interfering with marijuana sales in states where it is legal.

Share story

Marijuana-linked stocks of companies in the Seattle area and elsewhere plunged Thursday as U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions withdrew the Obama-era policy restricting federal law enforcement officials from interfering with marijuana sales in states where the drug is legal.

Two tiny public companies in the Seattle area that trade on the over-the-counter market, Diego Pellicer Worldwide and Growlife, each fell by about 50 percent before narrowing their losses.

Diego Pellicer, which leases several buildings to legal marijuana operations in Seattle and Colorado, closed the day down 29 percent. Growlife, a marketer of indoor growing equipment to producers of plants including cannabis, finished with a 44.8 percent drop.

Elsewhere, Canopy Growth of Canada (ticker symbol WEED), the biggest pot company by market value, lost 10 percent for the day on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Another Canadian pot company, Aphria, lost 13.8 percent in Toronto — still leaving it up 140 percent since Nov. 1.

Meanwhile, the first pure-play marijuana fund listed in the U.S. as an exchange-traded fund, ETFMG Alternative Harvest ETF, fell 6.2 percent. The ETF began trading as a marijuana-focused issue Dec. 26, a day after California fully legalized marijuana (it had earlier concentrated on Latin American real estate) .